The invention relates to a supporting grate for packings in material exchange columns with a corrugated profile and gas openings. Packings of material exchange columns are held by supporting grates, mostly in the form of bar grates. For this, ordered packings for example according to DE-PS 27 22 424 or also so-called loose packings, for example Pall rings, are used. Material exchange columns are often divided into sections, so that the fluid is collected and redistributed and thus a new uniform fluid distribution over the cross-section is achieved and concentration profiles over the cross-section are broken down. Inlets and lateral outlets can also be attached at such locations. Before the fluid dripping down is redistributed on a material exchange section lying below it this fluid must be collected and if necessary combined and mixed with an inlet stream delivered from outside. This necessitates a relatively costly collecting device, consisting for example of a collecting base with steam chimneys and a fluid outlet by means of which the collected fluid is delivered to a fluid distributor lying below it. The collector can also consist of a plurality of collecting plates covering the entire column cross-section. If no intermixing of the fluid is necessary, the fluid can also drip through from the collecting base directly onto the lower exchange section. A collecting base must then be perforated over the entire cross-section. However, this does not produce sufficient intermixing of the fluid which could equalise concentration gradients over the cross-section.
Humped grates with a corrugated profile and gas openings can also be used as supporting grates, these humped grates consisting for example of a profiled sheet with slots, holes or of metal mesh. The advantage of this corrugated profiling lies in the enlargement of the surface by comparison with a flat arrangement, so that a greater cross-section is provided for the steam or gas to pass through and thus a reduced pressure drop is achieved. In addition the humped shape increases the rigidity and breaking strength of a grate.
However, these known arrangements have considerable disadvantages. Large overall heights are necessary and in spite of the increased surface area due to the corrugation there is still a disturbingly high pressure loss. In addition, with larger column diameters the supporting capacity of the perforated supporting grates is often insufficient, so that for example one single bearing ring on the column casing is not enough but rather additional supports have to be mounted, which in turn requires additional column height. Furthermore, the known constructions are also costly to produce.